The present invention generally relates to a paper feeding arrangement and more particularly, to a paper sheet feeding arrangement for use in an electrophotographic copying apparatus and the like.
Generally, for the paper sheet feeding arrangement of the above described type, there has been employed for the actual application, an arrangement in which copy paper sheets in a stack accommodated in a paper sheet cassette detachably mounted on a paper feeding section are fed, one sheet by one sheet, from the uppermost layer of the stack based on rotation of a paper feeding roller. In the paper sheet feeding arrangement of the above described type, there has conventionally been provided a multi-sheet feeding prevention mechanism of a type employing a separating claw or having a paper sheet separating stand or paper sheet separating roller provided to confront the lower peripheral portion of the feeding roller so as to displace or separate copy paper sheets for avoiding such an inconvenience that two or three sheets of paper are fed simultaneously. In the multi-sheet feeding prevention mechanism of the above described kind, the type adopting the paper sheet separating stand or paper sheet separating roller is superior to the type employing the separating claw in the accurate functioning and compact size of the mechanism, etc.
Incidentally, in the type employing the paper sheet separating stand or paper sheet separating roller as referred to above, the leading edge of a paper sheet to be subsequently fed undesirably extends or projects up to the portion of the separating stand or separating roller from the end face of the cassette in a paper feeding direction at each feeding of one paper sheet, and therefore, there are such disadvantages that the projecting portion of the paper sheet is brought into contact with surrounding side frames, outer panel members, etc. during withdrawal of the cassette from the paper feeding section so as to be undesirably wrinkled, and that, even after withdrawal of the cassette, such projecting portion accidentally contacts hands of an operator, etc. resulting in formation of wrinkles or bending thereat.
On the other hand, for attaching or detaching the cassette with respect to the paper feeding section, there are available two directions, i.e. one direction which is in the same direction as the feeding direction of the paper sheets, and the other direction which intersects at right angles with the feeding direction of the paper sheets, and generally, employment of the direction intersecting at right angles with the paper sheet feeding direction is more advantageous from the viewpoint of operability, available spaces, etc. However, if the above cassette attaching or detaching direction intersecting at right angles with the paper sheet feeding direction is adopted, there is an increased possibility that the projecting portion of the paper sheet described earlier is brought into contact with the surrounding side frames, outer panel members, etc. in the course of withdrawal of the cassette from the paper feeding section, with the tendency toward formation of wrinkles becoming more conspicuous as compared with that in the cassette attaching or detaching direction which is in the same direction as the paper sheet feeding direction.